Reform Judaism:
The Origins of Reform Judaism

Reform
Judaism was born at the time of the French Revolution,
a time when European Jews were recognized for the first
time as citizens of the countries in which they lived.
Ghettos were being abolished, special badges were no
more, people could settle where they pleased, dress
as they liked and follow the occupations that they wanted.

Many Jews settled outside of Jewish districts, and
began to live like their neighbors and speak the language
of the land. They went to public schools and universities,
began to neglect Jewish studies and to disregard the Shulchan Aruch.

In 1815, after Napoleon's defeat, Jews lost the rights
of citizenship in several countries. Many Jews became
Christian to retain those rights. Thoughtful Jews were
concerned about this. They realized that many of these
changes took place not because of a dislike of Judaism,
but to obtain better treatment. Many rabbis believed
the way to address this was to force Jews to keep away
from Christians and give up public schools and universities.
This didn't work.

Leopold Zunz proposed something else. He suggested
that Jews study their history and learn of the great
achievements of the past. While Zunz was implementing
his ideas, a movement began to make religious services
better understood, by incorporating music and the local
language. Local Rabbis, however, persuaded the government
to close the test synagogue.

Shortly after the closing, Rabbi Abraham Geiger suggested
that observance might also be changed to appeal to modern
people. Geiger, a skilled scholar in both Tanach and
German studies, investigated Jewish history. He discovered
that Jewish life had continually changed. Every now
and then, old practices were changed and new ones introduced,
resulting in a Jewish life that was quite different
from that lived 4,000 or even 2,000 years before. He
noticed these changes often made it easier for Jews to live in accordance with Judaism. Geiger concluded
that this process of change needed to continue to make
Judaism attractive to all Jews.

Between 1810 and 1820, congregations in Seesen, Hamburg
and Berlin instituted fundamental changes in traditional
Jewish practices and beliefs, such as mixed seating,
single­day observance of festivals and the use of
a cantor/choir. Many leaders of the Reform movement
took a very "rejectionist" view of Jewish
practice and discarded traditions and rituals. For example:

Circumcision was not practiced, and was decried
as barbaric.

The Hebrew language was removed from the liturgy
and replaced with German.

The hope for a restoration of the Jews in Israel
was officially renounced, and it was officially stated
that Germany was to be the new Zion.

The ceremony in which a child celebrated becoming
Bar Mitzvah was replaced with a "confirmation"
ceremony.

The laws of Kashrut and family purity were officially
declared "repugnant" to modern thinking
people, and were not observed.

Shabbat was observed on Sunday.

Traditional restrictions on Shabbat behavior were
not followed.

Reform Comes
to America

American Reform Judaism began as these German "reformers"
immigrated to American in the mid­1800s. The first
"Reform" group was formed by a number of individuals
that split from Congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston,
South Carolina. Reform rapidly became the dominant belief
system of American Jews of the time. It was a national
phenomenon.

Reform Judaism in American benefitted from the lack
of a central religious authority. It also was molded
by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Rabbi Wise came to the United
States in 1846 from Bohemia, spent eight years in Albany,
NY, and then moved to Cincinnati on the edge of the
frontier. He then proceeded to:

1. Write the first siddur edited for American worshipers, Minhag American (1857).

2. Found the Union of American Hebrew Congregations
in 1873.

3. Found Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1875.

4. Found the Central Conference of American Rabbis
(CCAR) in 1889.

Reform Jews also pioneered a number of organizations,
such as the Educational Alliance on the Lower East Side
of New York, the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the
American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League
of B'nai Brith.

By 1880, more than 90 percent of American synagogues
were Reform. This was the time of the major Eastern
European immigration, which was heavily Orthodox and
non­German, as contrasted with the strongly German
Reform movement. Many Reform congregations of this time
were difficult to distinguish from neighboring Protestant
churches, with preachers in robes, pews with mixed seating,
choirs, organs and hymnals. Like their counterparts
in Germany, American Reform rabbis, such as David Einhorn,
Samuel Holdheim, Bernard Felsenthal and Kaufmann Kohler,
adopted a radical approach to observance.

Although early American Reform rabbis dropped quite
a bit of traditional prayers and rituals, there was
still a "bottom line." In 1909, the CCAR formally
declared its opposition to intermarriage. And, although
decried as "archaic" and "barbarian,"
the practice of circumcision remained a central rite.

This early radicalism was mentioned in the 1885 Pittsburgh
Platform, which dismisses "such Mosaic and rabbinical
laws as regulate diet, priestly purity and dress"
as anachronisms that only obstruct spirituality in the
modern age. The platform stressed that Reform Jews must
only be accepting of laws that they feel "elevate
and sanctify our lives" and must reject those customs
and laws that are "not adapted to the views and
habits of modern civilization."

Early Reform Judaism was also anti­Zionist, believing
the Diaspora was necessary for Jews to be "light
unto the nations." Nevertheless, a number of Reform
rabbis were pioneers in establishing Zionism in America,
including Gustav and Richard Gottheil, Rabbi Steven
S. Wise (founder of the American Jewish Congress) and
Justice Louis Brandeis. Following the Balfour Declaration,
the Reform movement began to support Jewish settlements
in Palestine, as well as institutions such as Hadassah
Hospital and the Hebrew University.

As the years passed, a reevaluation took place in
which many members of the Reform movement began to question
the "reforms" that were made. By 1935, the
movement had begun to return to a more traditional approach
to Judaism-distinctly Jewish and distinctly American,
but also distinctively non­Christian. Starting with
the Columbus Platform in 1937, many of the discarded
practices were reincorporated into the Reform canon,
and constitute what is now called "Modern"
Reform Judaism, or more succinctly, Reform Judaism.
The platform also formally shifted the movement's position
on Zionism by affirming "the obligation of all
Jewry to aid in building a Jewish homeland...."